And the Year Ends

Happy Samhain!

Many people call Samhain the Witches' New Year. This has always felt off to me. Solstice, the returning of the light, feels most naturally like a new beginning. That never diminished my love of Samhain. In fact, it is my favorite wheel of the year holiday. I love the deep, rich feeling of it. I love that, more than at any other holiday, I feel the bridge to the past and future, to ancestors, to teachers, to possibility. Some say the word Samhain means Summer's End. This clicks for me. Samhain is Year End. This leaves my 3D mind with a quandary. How can the year end on October 31st and the new year not begin until December 21st? What is that six-week period in between?

It is a time outside of time. Each year, this is a gift. The gift of a moment between what was and what will be. It allows me to feel more easily the now. It allows me the ability to steep in possibility. It allows me to open with gratitude and enthusiasm to the dark. The dark that harkens to the no thing. In these days, I can feel so much more easily the pregnancy of what will unfold. I feel more easily the power and anticipation of the moment before the cosmos burst forth into being and the possibility of drawing that power into this reality.

In New England, nature brought a hint of Solstice for Samhain this year with half a foot of snow. I am receiving it as a reminder to loosen my attachment to chronological time. As I enter into this period of pause, I'm reminded that the New Year will come. And not yet. I'm going to go shovel snow off my deck to make room for Samhain circle. Tonight I dance around the cauldron connected to past, future, and now. Tonight I dance around the cauldron with gratitude for all the souls and spirits who have come before. Tonight I dance around the cauldron and step into possibility. Tonight, I dance around the cauldron and step into the flow of Creation with a "Yes!" Tonight I dance around the cauldron to bid farewell to the passing year and step into the pleasure of waiting for the new.

I am wishing for all a blessed Year End. May it hold the beauty and excitement of possibility to unfold in the New Year.

Blessed be.